Tuned out

I have found it extremely difficult to write about politics over the last two weeks without invoking the Gillard/Rudd leadership contest which had/has subsumed the national political conversation.

Many people have very passionate and different views on this issue. Some of my views are summarised here and here.

From what I’ve observed since the events of last Thursday, I believe both dynamics (conscious and unconscious invoking of Kevin Rudd from all sides of the political spectrum and the negative predisposition prism towards Julia Gillard’s leadership) are still very much in play despite all that has happened and all that was said because nothing really got resolved except for a very short term resolution to the superficial leadership contest.

The deep structural issues (the REAL drivers behind what happened) were simply far too difficult for the ALP as an organisation to deal with and they were swept under the carpet, waiting to come out at the next available opportunity.

The “insiders/outsiders” analogy is often mentioned in relation to politics in order to describe the differences between those who pay attention to what is happening politically or are involved in “the game” and those who pay little or no attention for various reasons and have no active political engagement. I don’t like using this analogy however I think it’s an apt way of looking at things for the present moment.

Federal politics has become a game of “insiders” and most of the national political conversation has become completely divorced from the way most people live their lives day to day. Last week amplified this “insiders game” by at least a factor of ten.

While this remains the case, the majority of people will simply remain tuned out.